A break in the fighting in Gaza came with difficulty

It has been weeks of work and it remains to be seen whether there will be a hitch. But 46 days after the start of the Gaza war, Israel and Hamas, after mediation by Qatar, the United States and Egypt, agreed a substantial ceasefire, which is linked to an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners. This news has been welcomed worldwide. Qatari negotiator Mohammed al-Khulaifi said he hoped this would be “a seed for a bigger agreement and a permanent ceasefire.”

Israel and Hamas have agreed, according to media reports, that the weapons will be released from Thursday morning 10am local time. The agreement currently applies for four days. During that period, fifty hostages taken by Hamas from southern Israel will be released, all women and children. They also include three hostages of American nationality, including a three-year-old girl whose parents were both killed by Hamas fighters on October 7. In exchange, Israel lets go of about 150 Palestinian prisoners. That group also consists of some women and Palestinian teenage boys. None of them are suspected of murder.

The truce could also be extended if Hamas releases more hostages. More Palestinians could also be released. As far as we know, Hamas still has about 240 hostages in its hands, although it is not certain that all are still alive. According to unconfirmed reports, the International Red Cross will gain access to the remaining hostages during the truce and provide medical assistance if necessary. A US official said Hamas also needs some time to track down exactly where all the hostages are staying.

Humanitarian help

The truce will allow humanitarian aid to be restarted for the hard-pressed civilians of Gaza. Many of them have been without sufficient food, drinking water and medicine for weeks. The aid trucks should go not only to the southern half of the Gaza Strip, where most of the civilian population has fled under pressure from Israel’s army, but also to the badly damaged north. About 160,000 civilians still live there under very difficult circumstances.

After hours of deliberation, the Israeli cabinet agreed to the deal on Tuesday evening, after Hamas had previously agreed. Only three members of the cabinet voted against, including the far-right Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir. He called it the agreement “a dangerous precedent”. In his view, it rewards Hamas for taking hostages.

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There is also concern on the Israeli side that Hamas is thanks to the file can regroup. Israel will also only be able to partially check this with drones, because – at the insistence of Hamas – a no-fly zone has been agreed over the southern part of the Gaza Strip. Above the north, this ban applies from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Some soldiers would therefore have preferred to continue into the Gaza Strip to further increase the pressure on Hamas. If the war resumes after the ceasefire, as Israel has announced, more Israeli soldiers could die than would otherwise have been the case. Hamas has also said its fighters have their “finger on the trigger”.

Protest march

It was Wednesday still fighting in the Gaza Strip. Clouds of smoke could be seen above Gaza City after an Israeli action. Also in the southern city Khan Younis bombed Israel. A building collapsed, killing seventeen people, including some children.

Israel could not immediately begin implementing the deal on Wednesday because Israelis have a legal right to appeal the release of Palestinian prisoners to the Supreme Court. A period of 24 hours applies to such objections. This also happened in 2011, when Israel released 1,023 Palestinians in exchange for one captured Israeli soldier. But the Supreme Court immediately rejected all objections at the time and it is expected that this time will be no different.

According to Israeli media, the agreement was reached in much the same form It was also on the table a week ago, but Prime Minister Netanyahu declared himself against it at the time. He may have changed his mind after a meeting on Monday with the relatives of hostages, who previously drew attention to the fate of their loved ones through a protest march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The armed forces and intelligence services are also said to have agreed to the deal.

Shortly after Hamas’ bloody attack on southern Israel on October 7, Qatar, which has close ties with both Hamas and the United States, approached the Americans about forming a US-Israeli cell to deal with the hostage issue. The website Politico reports that in addition to senior officials from the National Security Council, President Biden himself also intervened in the matter. Biden repeatedly discussed the fate of the hostages with Netanyahu by telephone. He also spoke with relatives of the hostages via Zoom.

On October 23, Hamas, which had previously released two hostages, offered to release more hostages. However, Israel would then have to refrain from a ground offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu rejected that proposal, partly because he did not seem certain that the hostages would indeed be released. It was also not known at that time how many of them were still alive. The US also had reservations about such a deal at the time.

When, after the start of the ground offensive, Hamas passed on evidence via Qatar that the hostages were still alive, the prospects for a deal improved again. But partly due to the Israeli attack on the Al-Shifa hospital last week, it was still in danger of collapsing. President Biden then called the emir of Qatar, according to Politico, and sent a senior official to Doha to present him with another draft agreement. After some wrangling, Hamas agreed to this. And in the end Israel also agreed with it. A US official involved spoke of a “torturous five-week process”.

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